D'Jahna Akinyemi, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Research Interests: Drug allergy and the impact that being labeled allergic to antibiotics has on the outcomes of patients hospitalized with a serious infection such as community-acquired pneumonia. ...read more

Locations

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
Appointment Phone: 410-550-2300

Background

Dr. D’Jahna Akinyemi joined the faculty in the fall of 2012 following three years of allergy and clinical immunology postdoctoral fellowship training at the University of Pennsylvania. She received the first ever American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology/Schering-Plough Allergy/Immunology Fellowship of Excellence Award. Her interests provide a unique opportunity to partner across disciplines such as general internal medicine, infectious diseases, pharmacy and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to improve the outcomes of inpatients with a history of antibiotic allergy that require antibiotic treatment. Studies have shown that as many as 25% of hospitalized patients report have at least one antibiotic allergy, yet other studies have shown that when fully characterized, about 80% of such cases are either incorrect or can be shown to no longer be active based on antibiotic allergy testing. This means that the vast majority of hospitalized patients are unnecessarily being denied access to a full range of antibiotics, especially when these antibiotics to which they are presumed allergic represent the drug of choice for their infection.